The aim of the proposed project is to gain a greater understanding of same-sex friendships, and the contextual factors that influence these relationships among urban adolescents. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the project will examine the perceptions of same-sex friendships; assess the influence of self esteem, family relationships, and perceptions of school climate on the quality of same-sex friendships; and determine ethnic and gender differences in the perceptions of same-sex friendships among urban, poor and working class, ethnic minority adolescents. The intent of the project is to generate hypotheses. Exploratory, hypothesis- generating research is essential for understanding those populations about whom we have little knowledge and who have been excluded from theory building research (Jessor, 1993). The project rests upon the assumption that to understand the nature of human relationships, one must examine the subjective experiences of these relationships (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, Lewin, 1951); and that the examination of the relational and institutional contexts in which human development occurs is an essential element of any investigation of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Peer relationships play a central role in the development of adaptive and maladaptive behavior among adolescents (Hartup, 1993; Savin-Williams & Berndt, 1990). Therefore, it is critical that mental health professionals examine and understand these relationships and the contextual factors that influence them. Ninety tenth-grade African-American, Latino, and Asian-American students attending a public high school in New York City will be recruited for this study. Equal numbers of African-American, Latino, and Asian American students and equal numbers of boys and girls within each of the three ethnic groups will be recruited from general education classrooms. The students will be asked to independently complete a set of standardized questionnaires and participate in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. The standardized questionnaires and semi-structured interviews will focus on the adolescents' perceptions of their relationships with family members, their self esteem, the school climate, and the quality of their same-sex friendships. The quantitative data analysis will involve correlational and hierarchical multiple regression analyses, and multivariate analysis of variance. The qualitative data will be analyzed using two data analytic techniques (Miles & Huberman, 1985; Miller, 1988).